Author: Mike

It was a record setting rain in Deer Creek today. We had 2.5 inches in the gauge at our modest three acre forest home. To date since August 1–we’ve had 18.5 inches of precip.

The turkeys are starting to band back together. Fifteen came for the early morning feed at 7:00am. We had been just getting the four regular male alphas who have been with us for almost fifteen years. But today there were fifteen birds.

Pauli the Diva Lab could care less about the turkeys. Neither could my son’s chocolate lab named Perk. But my daughter-in-law’s cocker spaniel literally goes into Hannibal Lectern mode when the turkeys emerge from the forest. Funny how each dog reacts. That dog clearly should have been named Westbrook.

I put a big dent in the book today as it petty much rained all day. One thing I’ve noticed in the first three hundred pages in this book is a noticeable absence of Nick Collison references. Very odd since you have to figure Royce Young was probably a go between Anderson and setting up interviews with the Thunder. I just find it odd there aren’t more Collison anecdotes in the book since Young loves Collison as much as I do and I have found Collison’s voice to be the one major consistent constant in the Thunder story.

In my book I’ll pass on Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips and very much integrate Collison into the narrative. Because to me, Collison is almost as important secondary character as say Scott Brooks or Billy Donovan. But clearly, the four main characters are Presti, Durant, Westbrook, and Harden even in absentia. The trade will always define this story regardless of who writes a book.

I’m not a Flaming Lips fan. You couldn’t pay me enough money to sit through one of their concerts. Good lord. Does this band have a best song? If ever there was testament to the Peter Principle…this band illustrates the validity of the PP. I could care less if Anderson finds Coyne symbolic to the dysfunction of Oklahoma City. I’m sure as a writer I could go to the bus station and find other dysfunctional Oklahoma City souls. I couldn’t believe he shared the rainbow street painting story. That’s usually the sort of thing boys in the early stages of puberty do. For such a well written book otherwise…this was a letdown. I’m surprised his wife didn’t tap him on the shoulder and say ‘pass’.

But I kind of get it…as it ties to the explosion of the Plaza District and the whole Oklahoma City story into place somewhat. You probably need some shit like this to sell some books to the millenials.

I found the chapters on Clara Luper and Stanley Draper to be excellent though.

I plan on writing some things on here as far as racism in Oklahoma myself since I know locals like Barry Tramel and Royce Young aren’t allowed to write such things. This clearly is the huge advantage of having an obscure rogue blog. You can openly be honest with your writing. You can write Donald Trump is a racist birther motherfucking douchebag and it doesn’t matter. There’s something to be said for that and it’s also why a NY Times writer had to write this book in stead of one of the regular OKC writers who cover the team. Just to be clear…I don’t think Young and Tramel are racists. They’re both good guys, but there are just certain things which aren’t tenable for mainstream writers in OKC to write or say in public if they want to remain popular..

Anyway, here’s the Wayne Coyne house in a part of Oklahoma City where prostitutes and drug dealers once roamed and still do to a lesser degree. I could tell you this, Pauli would take one look at this place and say to me,” Mike, I love you and everything, but I’m not living here. I need a forest view.”

The non-winning steak is finally over in Cleveland. This streak which stretched over six hundred days and dated back to the final game of the 2016 regular season is over as in done. These Cleveland Browns might actually be headed in the right direction.

I know…it’s the Cleveland Browns, perhaps the most hapless franchise in any of the four major league sports, but there is hope in Cleveland with new general manager Jim Dorsey who cut his teeth with the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs.

I like what he’s done with the team. He added Jarvis Landry. He added Carlos Hyde. He’s taken a chance with Antonio Calloway. He’s drafted some nice pieces on the defensive side of the football. He finally got rid of Josh Gordon. But most of all he took Baker Mayfield with the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft and sent a signal that the entire culture of losing in Cleveland is going to end.

Some people hate Mayfield, but I watched this kid at OU and he’s the real deal as far being the kind of quarterback they need in Cleveland. The Browns need a guy with swagger. They need the guy who turned the OU football program back in the right direction. They need that type of player who just wins. Who makes others around permeate with the same type of inner confidence which Baker Mayfield exudes. To me…Mayfield is kind of a cross of Brett Fauve and Tony Romo. A tough quarterback who finds a way. Romo never had a chance in Dallas. Don’t hold that against him. Hold that against Jerry Jones.

Now I know the moral guardian types who love the moral high ground football played at places like Oklahoma State University, which seemingly will be in the Alamo Bowl from now until the end of mankind, despise Baker Mayfield for his arrogance, flag planting, and crotch grabbing. Yes, all of us OU fans know Mike Gundy walks on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood water…sigh. But here’s the thing…winning matters in sports. Winning really matters. You obviously want to try and not cross the line. You don’t want your players assaulting women like Joe Mixon, Tyreke Hill, and Ben Rothlisberger did, but winning matters or else you find yourself as somewhat irrelevant and find yourself in the Alamo Bowl every year playing the third or fourth best team in the PAC 12 needing your wrestling and golf programs to do the heavy lifting as far as winning. You see, even Jim Traber’s Steelers and the Rooney family will sometimes look the other way in order to win.

Truth hurts. Winning matters….especially in college and pro football. If winning doesn’t matter then why is Urban Meyer still the head coach at Ohio State? So all you moral guardians should stop watching football on focus on college golf and wrestling. But heck–even Patrick Reed had some issues at Georgia.

I know this is only one game and the New York football Jets are hapless, but these Browns could be different and they have the advantage that the current version of the Pittsburgh Steelers are in disarray and quite frankly the most underachieving team in the glorious history in the modern era of Steeler football. Figures they’d draft the O State kid who could never beat Mayfield in Bedlam in either Stillwater or Norman. That might be a cheap shot by me, but it is what it is.

The Steelers with this Le’Veon Bell debacle have shown themselves to be on the cusp of not being the Steelers cut from the mold of Rooney family. This is a team which plays stupid. They play lazy. They waste their talent. They can’t beat Tom Brady whenever it matters and now it appears they don’t even make the pretense of listening to head coach Mike Tomlin.

The Bengals are still the Bengals and the Baltimore Ravens are headed in the wrong direction.

If ever a Cleveland Brown fan could feel some hope it might be right now.

I don’t really have a favorite team in the AFC. The Packers have always had my heart since the days of Lombardi, Bart Starr, Jerry Kramer, and Camelot. With my son living in Denver the Broncos have my attention in the AFC. I used to love the Chargers when they played in my birthplace city San Diego, but they don’t do anything for me anymore.

Could I become a Cleveland Brown fan?

Maybe.

I think I might watch the fiction sports film Draft Day again tonight just to tell myself there is the possibility the Cleveland Browns could perhaps in real life make a sequence of good decisions.

We’ll see.

BY the way, I think Mike Gundy is a good coach. I’d love to see him coach some day at a place like Miami or LSU to see how he’d do in relation to Jimmy Johnson and Les Miles.

The weather part of the book I absolutely loved. I live in Oklahoma. I work outside. The weather has had a huge impact on my life and my business. The weather is pretty much like a religion of sorts.

Gary England was a little guy from a small town named Ceiling just a bit northwest of where I live in Deer Creek. I guess that geographical tangent turned out to be a great producer of Oklahoma weathermen. Just kidding…kind of. It also turns out Gary England and I are not only both level-headed Libras, but we share the same birthdate of October 3rd. Go figure.

These local guys in OKC pale in comparison to England. It would be like comparing Dak Prescott to Aaron Rodgers. Mike Morgan should probably be in jail for that caper when he had half the state tied up on the highways trying to outrun some tornadoes.

I was clearly the best weatherman on Daily Thunder. Not even remotely close.

I also noted Sam Anderson used one of my coined terms of ‘Trekkies’ when referring to the some of the lost human rabble who inhabit the messageboards of blogs like the Daily Thunder. but I will also note there were some genuinely talented people on that messageboard as well.

It was a glorious time to be a Thunder internet guru…it really was. I have to be honest with you…when I was on that blog I felt like Sinatra at a Justin Beiber concert. Thank god for Thunderchick and Glenda.

But Sam Anderson’s useage of Trekkie did not escape me. Me fucking with some of those millennial knuckleheads and dipshits with my litany of Trekkie-isms should have at the least deserved a shout from Anderson in his book. Maybe it’s in the prologue. I feel like Kramer when he invented the fragrance The Beach and had it stolen from him by Calvin Klein.

I’m loving this book from a history standpoint of Oklahoma City. Like I’ve written on here before one of my degrees is in history and I thought hard about becoming a history teacher or professor when I was younger. Given what I’ve observed in Oklahoma from an education standpoint…I made the right choice. Anderson’s accounts of Oklahoma City’s history are not only entertaining, but very readable. The way he structured the book using the Thunder to illustrate the Boom/Bust syndrome of OKC’s history is masterful.

My book, whenever it gets written, will be more basketball oriented, more like the journal David Halberstam wrote about Bill Walton and the ’78-’79 Portland Trailblazers titled Breaks of the Game. More like a Season on the Brink or an Instant Replay.

This book Anderson has written though I think will define itself as somewhat of a genre classic. But I can’t really define it as a basketball book, but more to the point it’s this masterful account of Oklahoma City and it’s struggles to overcome the Boom/Bust syndrome and to somehow get out of its own way as a city trying to grow up.

His observations in regards to Durant, Westbrook, and Presti are spot on. I’m hoping in the back half of the book he had a personal interview with James Harden in as much as the Harden trade is the singular basketball moment which drives the story from a basketball standpoint. Let us be clear, the Harden trade along with Durant leaving to join the Warriors are the two most impactful events in the history of the Thunder. I’m a little surprised the account of Harden being driven to the OKC airport for his post trade flight to Houston hasn’t been in the book so far.

Great book though. I’m reading slower on purpose to prolong the positive experience. I love a well told narrative and Sam Anderson has written a story which might not be quite in the class of Halberstam’s Breaks of the Game, but from my standpoint is a book I’ll treasure. I love good books and well told stories. This is both.

I will write this though…I’m a little disappointed the almost iconic dr el prez hasn’t been mentioned yet any of the Daily Thunder references. I wonder what Anderson’s on screen name was in retrospect? I also must admit I miss the old Daily Thunder messageboard back when they had an iconic messageboard. I love the fact Royce Young and his wife let me write fuck as many times as I needed to write it. On here though–I’m determined to reduce my ‘fuck’ usages. I might be a Jesse James rogue, but I’m not a Deplorable. I need to write my Top Ten Favorite posters sometime this month. No. 1 is easy….dr el prez—the other nine need some more thought though Thunderchick, Glenda, and Justin obviously make the cut.

Buy the book and read it.

You’ll laugh and you’ll cry.

What other city would on purpose expose its citizens to sonic booms? Probably the same city which now leads the country in earthquakes due to fracking. Operation Bongo…I’ll have to write something on this. Only in Oklahoma could this happen.

The Gary England weather anecdotes are great. I love the weather myself and always dreamed of being the next Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel. Weather is such an integral part of the Oklahoma culture and Anderson’s use of the weather is deft. Long story short…you gotta be a mentally tough motherfucker to survive the weather, the politics, Operation Bongo, and the earthquakes to live in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma City has never really learned all that much, yet it sustains and plods forward trying to define itself as a city.

I was stunned when former OKC mayor Mick Cornett wasn’t even competitive with Trump GOP candidate Kevin Stitt in the recent GOP gubernatorial runoff.

Storyline…OKC in small parts has grown up while the vast majority of the state hasn’t or won’t.

My big sister from Seattle who got her doctorate from Harvard sent me this book titled Boom Town by a writer named Sam Anderson from the NY Times magazine. She loved the book, but of course we stole Seattle’s team and she loves the Warriors. But never once has she touted me towards a bad book. Not once.

Only twenty pages into the book…I will admit she is right again.

Twenty pages in and I’m crying, laughing, and realizing this person named Sam Anderson who is basically an essayist for the NY Times Magazine can write his ass off as he has put together this mosaic history of Oklahoma City and the Thunder woven into one.

It’s the book I should have rightfully written and still might if Russell Westbrook can ever harness his inner Maurice Cheeks and win an NBA championship without Kevin Durant.

If you live in Oklahoma or even if you don’t this is a must read.

It explains this place which at times completely frustrates me, yet in some ways still holds me captive by what a completely odd place it is right in the heartland of America and currently ranked as the 29th largest city in the country.

It’s not really a basketball book, but more a history piece on OKC told through the eyes of the Thunder highlighted by the odd occurrences which somehow put Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden all here for that 2012 run to the NBA Finals and a bit beyond.

Steven Adams has also written a book which I’m going to read before the season starts and for me that means I’ll read Sam Anderson’s book this week and start getting myself in a frame of mind for the upcoming Thunder season.

Anderson combines in one book two of my greatest loves… history and basketball.

He had me in the opening paragraph.

It’s nice to read something not about Donald Trump and the Russian mafia.

I’ll get back to that douchebag after I finish this book.

I actually thought the Thursday Night game between the Eagles and Falcons was a dud. I fell asleep truth be known.

But today had three games I enjoyed immensely.

My son in Denver attended his first game in Mile High Stadium as the Broncos beat the Seattle Seahawks 27-24. He sounded like a little kid on Christmas when he called after the game. He really did.

Baker Mayfield didn’t play in Cleveland’s 21-21 tie with the Steelers. It will only be a matter of time before Baker is starting. Taylor just doesn’t throw the ball well enough and when as a quarterback can only generate one score after your offense gives you five turnovers and you can’t win the game the writing is on the wall. In the past five seasons in the NFL teams which were +5 in turnovers have a record of 130-2. The Cleveland Browns are 2-2-1 in that same category. End of story.

In the NFL Sunday Night Game my Packers were 0-117 in games in which they trailed by 17 or more points entering the fourth period.

The Packers are now 1-117.

Epic second half. I wonder if the Cleveland Browns played the Chicago Bears if either team could eventually win the game or if the game would just continue into infinity. Vegas is taking infinity.

Anyway, on one knee…Aaron Rodgers was simply incredible tonight.

Whoo!

I needed this. It reminded me I’m still human and can be touched despite the world we wade through daily.

The 1983 Philadelphia 76’ers and the 2012 Oklahoma City Thunder are my two favorite NBA teams of all-time. Maurice is the one chord between both of these teams. As a player he was my favorite point guard of his era not because of his star quality, but more because of the humble efficient way he went about his business as a team first player always.

I have to admit I cried watching this. I’m one year younger than Maurice and watching his beautiful acceptance speech reminded me we don’t live in the same world we lived in thirty years ago. We just don’t.

This was nice and I needed it. I needed to be reminded of what we can be as humans.

At some point, Russell Westbrook is going to have his 1983 championship season as did Maurice. I feel this in my heart. I genuinely do. I know… Different players, different eras. But I do feel at some point Russell and Sam Presti will have their moment… Maurice will be the common chord between all three of my all-time favorite NBA teams.

Like a good Vegas bookmaker—I’m going over my list again of the most probable suspects in the NY Times Op-Ed who dunnit and I’m going to change my top three Vegas betting favorites. You know, if Trump unleashes Jeff Sessions and Lindsey Graham loose on this it’s only a matter of time before they finger the wrong party/parties so I’m giving a great deal of thought to this.

I’m changing my list. I’m now going Ivanka & Jared Trump as my favorite, at 2 I’m going John Kelly, at 3 Dan Coats.

Ivanka and Jared are going back to New York at some point. They’re New York liberals. They probably do lunch with people at the NY Times. They’ve constantly tried to temper President Daddy to help him avoid his worst presidential impulses. They were the ones who brought General McMaster and Gary Cohn on board. Plus, they despise the Steve Bannon/Steven Miller faction of Trump’s circle.

So what a conundrum for Caligula if it turns out it was his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared? What in the world does Donald Trump do if it turns out the woman he covets most in the world in daughter Ivanka turned on him and feels he’s a danger to the country she wants to live in.

What would Caligula do if Jeff Sessions and Lindsey Graham came into his office, sat down with Caligula, and then informed the president it was his daughter and Jared who wrote the Op-Ed?

Would he have Jared tortured inside of a New Jersey warehouse?

Would he remove daughter Ivanka as his No. 1 Bucket List fantasy choice to be Wife No. 4?

I wonder if Sessions and Graham would even have the nerve to reveal this to the president?

It’s soap opera, isn’t it?

It’s who shot JR wrapped into a House of Cards season during a session of binge watching. Kevin Spacey never had a chance against these people.

Whether you despise Trump or not you have to admit he took House of Cards to places we never imagined possible.

Can a sitting president win an Emmy?

Interesting day. Trump demanded Jeff Sessions investigate the NY Times Op-Ed story. Barack Obama finally defended his legacy by denouncing Trump. And then Trump made some ridiculous comments as to how he’s never called Jeff Sessions stupid or made demeaning comments in general about others. Then the softest of the soft GOP senators–Lindsey Graham–who BTW was a charter member of the Never Trump crowd blamed Obama for the election of Donald Trump. I laugh out loud at Lindsey Graham. John McCain at the end must have been embarrassed about his friendship to Graham.

The only thing missing was Trump blaming Michelle Obama for the creation of the Birther Movement.

Today was an illustration of why I think America has become too stupid to be governed. Good luck with that.

Seems like an appropriate time to run this. And to think I was going to come back from Colorado and never mention Donald Trump on my blog for awhile.

Sigh.

I heard one smart thing, that being…”You’re supposed to stand up to a bully, not follow one.” Actually, Obama said quite a few smart things, I just think he shouldn’t have waited this long to say them.

America is in very deep shit if this mid-term election goes the wrong way.

Any of a multitude of Heritage Foundation type Republicans could have written this. Yeah, it could be someone from Mike Pence’s staff. It could be someone from the offices of Mitch McConnell or Paul Ryan. It could be John Kelly. I seriously doubt it’s either Nikki Haley or Mike Pompeo though because they both have future presidential aspirations and they need the average Trump voter. The reference to John McCain is interesting, but that in itself doesn’t sell me on the notion it’s Dan Coats or even the swarmy Lindsey Graham. I wonder if Ivanka & Jared Trump are considered current senior staff members? I also wonder if she could write something like this. I noticed at Trump’s stump speech in Montana he couldn’t pronounce the word anonymous. Sigh. I guess that Degree in Hucksterism from Wharton isn’t all it needs to be.

I also find it odd this Op-Ed came out at just about the same time Bob Woodward’s book on the ultimate huckster is about to be released.

How would Vegas handicap this?

I’m guessing Vegas would have the odds of the writer of this Op-Ed with something like this… 1 someone associated with Pence, 2 John Kelly, or 3 maybe Dan Coats. Maybe it’s someone none of us are thinking of.

But again, there’s nothing in this Op-Ed most of us haven’t been writing since the day Donald Trump was sworn in.